Day’s worst: Gessler’s spending

Friday wasn’t a kind news day for Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

The morning paper included news[1] that in June of 2011, Gessler took what was left in his office’s discretionary fund to reimburse himself for day-to-day expenses at the end of the fiscal year. Just one problem: He didn’t have any receipts to back up what those expenses were.

Forget that you’d never be able to pull that stunt in the private sector, it’s made worse for Gessler in that he helped himself to the public’s money.

The bad news day got worse for Gessler this afternoon, when The Post’s Tim Hoover reported[3] that the Secretary of State is alone among state officials in dipping into his discretionary fund to pay for trips to partisan events. (Gessler invited the media to pursue this story, by the way).

And how did Gessler defend his trip to The Republican National Lawyers Conference in Florida on the eve of the Republican National Convention?

“This is the only way for me to find out what the hot issues are in election law,” he said, adding that his discretionary fund spending shouldn’t be singled out.